Photo Credit: MediaiteIf one Maryland town hall is any indication, Republican voters are not happy with how little Republican politicians are doing to reign in the government. Greta Van Susteren took viewers to a town hall where Congressman Andy Harris was confronted by constituents angry about NSA surveillance, the Obama administration, and Republicans not doing enough for them. One man scolded Harris, “We’re dying out here because you guys are being nice guys!”
One man complained about NSA spying, saying Congress needs to “come clean” with the public about the government’s secret interpretation of the law. Harris assured him that he’s personally outraged by NSA surveillance, adding that they have “not seen the end of” investigations into Benghazi and the IRS scandals.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-09 01:21:202016-04-11 11:17:28Video: GOP Town Hall Explodes With Anger – ‘We’re Losing The Country’ So Quit Being ‘Nice Guys’!
On Fox News Sunday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) did not deny the House Republican leadership will support an “overall path to legalization” for all of the country’s illegal immigrants. Though not offering specifics, Cantor told host Chris Wallace that the House would be addressing the immigration issue and “would take a position” on the question after the August recess.
When repeatedly asked whether the House will vote on a bill to put at least 11 million illegal immigrants on a “path to legalization,” Cantor said the House Republican leadership has not made “any announcements about the schedule” and emphasized the House was “not going to be bringing the Senate bill up.” He also said the House Republican leadership was “going to take a position” “because we know the system is broken” and “we want to fix it.”
Cantor acknowledged that Committees in the House have already passed piecemeal immigration bills that deal with things like border security and guest workers and said, “we will have a vote on a series of bills at some point, and it will deal with a variety of issues.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-05 03:35:412016-04-11 11:17:41GOP House Leadership to Support Amnesty?
Photo Credit: APSen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he agrees with those that say there is pushback from the Republican establishment when the party faces heat from factions such as the libertarian wing.
Newt Gingrich said Thursday that he thinks the establishment is growing “more hysterical” as Paul and fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz rise in prominence. Paul said Friday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that he thinks the establishment needs to welcome new ideas.
“I think there’s some truth to that and I think the other thing about it is that the old guard needs to realize they’re the ones that have been losing the last couple of elections,” Paul said. “If we want to win for presidency we have to compete in the states where we’re not competing. Precisely, up in the northeast and on the west coast where Republicans are basically on life support. We need to reach out with issues that may attract new people to the party.”
One of the most divisive issues in the GOP has been the threat from some, including Paul, Cruz and fellow Sen. Mike Lee, to shut down the government as a means to defund Obamacare. Paul said he does not support shutting down the government, but rather using the continuing resolution as leverage against the president’s signature health care law.
They call it the Grand Old Party. It may be old, but it’s anything but grand right now.
And the Republicans who replaced the Whigs may soon be as relevant as Andrew Jackson’s party if they are not very careful.
What do I mean?
America is at a politically critical turning point – a point of no return.
If Republicans don’t use the power they have in the House of Representatives to defeat amnesty and defund Obamacare, they risk political obsolescence – as well as a future America with no chance to return to constitutionally limited government.
The way things look right now, Republicans do not have the will or intestinal fortitude even to fight back, let alone play the cards voters overwhelmingly gave them in 2010.
Maybe Republicans need a reminder: They control one-half of a bicameral legislature – the half needed to approve all funding for all programs, agencies, departments and initiatives of the federal government.
Republicans have the power to kill Obamacare by defunding it. They don’t need a single Democratic vote.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-03 03:57:392016-04-11 11:17:48The End of Republican Party
Photo Credit: CNSNewsAt the launch of a campaign to deny any further funding for implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, dubbed “You Fund it, You Own It,” Brent Bozell, chairman of ForAmerica, a non-profit 501(c) organization, said Republicans in Congress will be held accountable for their upcoming budget votes.
“This is a ‘Come to Jesus’ moment for Republicans,” Bozell said at a press conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday co-hosted by the Tea Party Patriots. “They better get religion soon.”
“The voters out there are unequivocally fed up with inaction from those who promised action,” Bozell said.
“It’s a very simple proposition,” Bozell said. “If you fund it, you own it.”
Bozell and Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, were joined by members of Congress and other grassroots groups at the event.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-02 01:20:372016-04-11 11:17:52Brent Bozell to GOP on Obamacare: “You Fund It, You Own It”
Photo Credit: Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCTDozens of leaders in the immigration movement were arrested Thursday after they blocked a major intersection near the Capitol in a protest of Republican opposition to an immigration overhaul that would include a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million immigrants who are in the country illegally.
More than 40 leaders were taken into custody after they walked onto Independence Avenue and locked arms, chanting in Spanish “Si, se puede” – “Yes, we can.” Another, smaller group of activists were arrested later in the afternoon after they blocked the hallway outside the office of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
As members of Congress prepared to leave Washington for a long summer recess, organizers said they wanted to send the “strongest message possible” to Republican leaders in the House of Representatives that they’re dissatisfied with progress on immigration and they’ll continue to fight for a comprehensive overhaul that includes a path to citizenship.
“We have to turn up the heat,” Jess George, the executive director of the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte, N.C., said minutes before she was arrested. “We have to let the House of Representatives know that America deserves a vote on citizenship. The vast majority of Americans want this. It’s democracy, and we need to make (House leaders) pay attention.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-02 01:10:122016-04-11 11:17:54Dozens Arrested in Pro-Amnesty Protest in DC
Photo Credit: Fox NewsRepublican report concludes Holder misled Congress on reporter targeting
By Fox News. House Republicans, in a lengthy report on the Justice Department’s leak investigations, formally accused Attorney General Eric Holder of misleading Congress with “deceptive” testimony that he knew nothing of the “potential prosecution” of the press.
The 70-page report was released late Wednesday by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. To coincide with the release, lawmakers also wrote a letter to President Obama calling for a “change in leadership” at the Justice Department.
“The deceptive and misleading testimony of Attorney General Holder is unfortunately just the most recent example in a long list of scandals that have plagued the department,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement.
The report delved into the department’s aggressive investigations over various security leaks, but focused in large part on the FBI affidavit seeking a search warrant for Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s emails in connection with one such probe. The DOJ sought access to the documents by arguing Rosen was a likely criminal “co-conspirator” in a leak case, citing the Espionage Act. Read more from this story HERE.
GOP Letter to Obama Seeking “Change in Leadership at the Justice Department”
July 31,2013
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President,
As members of the House Judiciary Committee, we write to express to you our grave concerns with Attorney General Eric Holder’s lack of leadership of the Justice Department. This lack of leadership is borne out by his recent testimony before the Committee and by the Justice Department’s handling of criminal investigations involving members of the media. Attached for your review is a report prepared by the Committee entitled “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques.”
The report finds that Mr. Holder provided deceptive and misleading testimony to the Committee. On May 15,2013, Mr. Holder testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee that the “potential prosecution” of a member of the media for a violation of the Espionage Act was something that he had never “been involved” in or “heard of.” Subsequently, it was revealed that he personally approved a search warrant for Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen’s emails, alleging to a federal judge that Mr. Rosen was a co-conspirator in an Espionage Act investigation.
We believe that Mr. Holder’s simple and direct statement had the intended effect – to leave the members of the Committee with the impression that not only had the potential prosecution of a reporter never been contemplated during Mr. Holder’s tenure, but that nothing comparable to the Rosen search warrant had ever been executed by your administration. Mr. Holder was not conversing with fellow prosecutors at the Justice Department; he was speaking to members of Congress and the American people in a venue that requires the utmost candor and clarity.
In addition, the Committee report finds that Mr. Holder and the Justice Department inappropriately interpreted the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (PP A) to obtain a search warrant for Mr. Rosen’s emails in contravention to congressional intent. Likewise, Mr. Holder’sproposal to am end the PPA is unnecessary, offered only as a cover for his testimony and the Department’s investigation of journalists.
Mr. Holder’s testimony and the Justice Department’s targeting of the media is but the latest in a series of controversial and questionable investigations undertaken during your tenure as President that cry out for a change in leadership at the Justice Department.
Sincerely,
Republican Members of the House Committee on the Judiciary
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-01 03:49:352016-04-11 11:17:56GOP Report: Holder Deliberately Misled Congress, Should be Fired (+video)
Photo Credit: Daily Caller Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is “perplexed” by GOP attacks on his effort to defund Obamacare and has no intention of backing down, despite complaints from other Senate Republicans that his crusade is not realistic and could potentially damage the party’s chances in the 2014 midterm elections.
“There may be people who lob attacks at him, but he’s not going to return those attacks,” Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told The Daily Caller, taking a firm stand in a battle that could determine the GOP’s strategic playbook heading into the 2014 midterms.
Cruz and fellow junior Republican senators Mike Lee and Marco Rubio are involved in a “coordinated effort,” according to Frazier, to urge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to block all continuing-resolution budget bills until Obamacare is defunded, either through budgetary means or by passing the Defund Obamacare Act, which has already failed three times in Congress.
Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Richard Burr of North Carolina strongly criticized the effort of Cruz and his two fellow junior senators, while Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn suggested that the plan’s political backlash could jeopardize Republican efforts to hold a majority in the House of Representatives next year.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-01 03:37:162016-04-11 11:17:58Cruz ‘Perplexed’ by GOP Attacks on Him, Won’t Back Down in ‘Defund Obamacare’ Fight
Photo Credit: Fox NewsBy Jason Howerton. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh sees a “battle” for the Republican Party happening right now between “mainstream” Republicans and true conservatives who rely on principle over politics. Meanwhile, he says that President Barack Obama is “relishing the opportunity to put into play what the leftists have only dreamed about in faculty lounges for 50 to 75 years.”
“I mean — there’s a battle for the [Republican] party going on,” Limbaugh told Greta Van Susteren in a rare and wide-ranging TV interview. “And sure, it — it’s — it would be a tough battle. But there’s no other option. I mean you don’t want to go third party. That’s just — that — that just ensures the Democrats are a majority party forever. You don’t want to do that.”
So what’s the solution, according to Limbaugh?
“[Y]ou have to do what you can to work within the Republican Party and take it over,” he said.
When asked about who he admires within Republican politics, Limbaugh named Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. However, he also said he respects all politicians who are “fearless and have the courage of their convictions and have no compunction about saying it.”
Limbaugh: Republicans Want a New Base Without Tea Party
By Greg Richter. The Republican Party wishes the tea party would go away, and would prefer a new base altogether, says conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
In an hourlong interview with Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren Tuesday, Limbaugh said the Republican leadership isn’t conservative.
“They’re not particularly crazy about conservatives,” he said, adding that members of the tea party can’t be controlled by the GOP leadership. In 2010, the grassroots movement rose up in opposition to President Barack Obama, but the Republican establishment didn’t embrace them.
Tea party members sensed that rejection and sat home in the 2012 presidential election, Limbaugh said, handing defeat to GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
And Limbaugh says the GOP establishment isn’t too enamored of him either. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-31 04:25:282016-04-11 11:18:01Rush Limbaugh: We Must Take the GOP Over (+video)
Photo Credit: Getty ImagesBy Wall Street Journal. In Chattanooga on Tuesday, the latest stop on his economic inequality tour, President Obama made himself an offer he couldn’t refuse. If Congressional Republicans agree to a corporate tax increase, he said, then he’ll agree to spend more money on his favorite public-works projects. If Republicans bargain hard, will he also offer an expansion of ObamaCare as a sweetener?
We know this sounds like an exaggeration, but that’s the essence of what the President proposed as what he called a new “grand bargain.” Mr. Obama will agree to reform the corporate tax code—a GOP priority and one even the President claims to support—but only if the reform raises more revenue and only if he is allowed to spend that windfall on his priorities.
A White House press release clarified that the President would also like to raise taxes on individuals, not just businesses, while allowing federal spending to rise still higher. But showing they retain a sense of humor in the West Wing, the press release suggests that the President is willing to forgo this tax increase for now because he wants to “work with Republicans.”
This isn’t a serious proposal, and he knows it. It also isn’t bipartisan, since he is offering a compromise with appeal to the ideological spectrum running from Elizabeth Warren to Chuck Schumer. Perhaps these are the only Members of Congress whom Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has in his iPhone.
The real bipartisan reform opportunity would be to get behind the chief Senate and House tax writers, Democrat Max Baucus and Republican Dave Camp. They’ve been holding hearings on tax reform for years, and Mr. Baucus has even invited all Senators to send him a list of tax provisions they’d like to retain and why. Read more from this story HERE.
Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough
By The Free Press.
President Obama,
Welcome to Chattanooga, one of hundreds of cities throughout this great nation struggling to succeed in spite of your foolish policies that limit job creation, stifle economic growth and suffocate the entrepreneurial spirit.
Forgive us if you are not greeted with the same level of Southern hospitality that our area usually bestows on its distinguished guests. You see, we understand you are in town to share your umpteenth different job creation plan during your time in office. If it works as well as your other job creation programs, then thanks, but no thanks. We’d prefer you keep it to yourself.
That’s because your jobs creation plans so far have included a ridiculous government spending spree and punitive tax increase on job creators that were passed, as well as a minimum wage increase that, thankfully, was not. Economists — and regular folks with a basic understanding of math — understand that these are three of the most damaging policies imaginable when a country is mired in unemployment and starving for job growth.
Even though 64 percent of Chattanooga respondents said they would rather you hadn’t chosen to visit our fair city, according to a survey on the Times Free Press website, it’s probably good that you’re here. It will give you an opportunity to see the failure of your most comprehensive jobs plan to date, the disastrous stimulus scheme, up close and personal. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-31 04:25:142016-04-11 11:18:01Obama’s Idiotic Grand Bargain: ‘If GOP Raises Corporate Taxes, I’ll Spend More on Public Works and Obamacare’
